John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Windsor Framework. Most parties at this stage have welcomed it. Business interests in the North and chambers of commerce have broadly welcomed it too. It has been a long time coming. It is seven years after Brexit and we are just getting this now so it has to be welcomed. Will the Minister join me in calling on the DUP to end its blockade of the Assembly in the North and seize this opportunity and get back into the Assembly and the Executive to start making politics work for the people in the North who badly need politics to work at this stage?

At the end of Ireland’s two-year period on the UN Security Council, I commend the team who represented us on the council. They did us very proud. Members of this committee had the honour of going to New York and meeting many of our people there who were working on the team under the stewardship of Geraldine Byrne Nason. She did a fantastic job, it must be said. She did us proud. The Minister touched on some of the issues that Ireland championed including humanitarian access to north western Syria. The humanitarian corridors have proved vital to getting aid in even before the earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria. Hopefully they will be extended in future after the six-month extension ends.

I know Ireland took a lead role on the conflict in the Tigray area of Ethiopia. Thankfully things have moved somewhat and there is a peace process and a ceasefire is in place. That was very difficult given the tensions around some of the major players involved in that conflict so to get the progress Ireland made with the Joint Statement at UN Security Council level was no mean feat.

I commend everyone on that. The last year on the UN Security Council was taken up with the illegal invasion of Ukraine by Russia and a lot of focus went, rightfully so, to that issue in terms of the illegal invasion, standing up for international law and the territorial integrity of Ukraine. We now need to focus on doing everything that is right for Ukraine but we also need to start building a narrative around moving towards peace and there is a role for Ireland to play as a militarily non-aligned country. Ireland needs to join with other non-aligned countries, to start that conversation, and to use our influence and the massive soft power we have. I ask the Tánaiste what engagement we have had with other countries in terms of trying to build a narrative or a space or forum for a peaceful resolution to that horrific conflict in Ukraine.

The one area where we were unfortunately not strong was on the issue of Palestine and it was a missed opportunity for us on the UN Security Council, to be more vocal in standing up right across the board and respecting international law irrespective as to where it is breached. The biggest breacher of international law of course is Israel. It has breached more UN Security Council resolutions than any other country in the world and I do not think Ireland was strong enough in that regard. Unfortunately we have now seen with the new right wing government in Israel that the situation has deteriorated even further for the Palestinians if that is possible. Since the start of this year we saw more than 65 Palestinians killed and we see settler violence at a level that I do not think anyone has ever seen and all of that is being done, aided and abetted by the Israeli occupational forces. We saw that play out in Nablus over the past number of days where more than 100 Palestinian homes and more than 45 Palestinian cars were torched and many businesses were destroyed while Israeli forces watched. This is not in isolation. Palestinians have been talking about the increased settler violence against them for a long time. We saw some attempts to broker a de-escalation of the tensions and the violence which led to the UN Security Council and the EU issuing statements on settlement expansions where more than 7,000 illegal settler units were given the go-ahead quite recently. That is more than in both 2021 and 2022 put together in the space of a number of days with more than 7,287 settler units bring given the go-ahead. The UN Security Council condemned that as did the EU. The Tánaiste might like to join those condemnations as regards that announcement. Irrespective as to the condemnations by the UN Security Council, the EU, and hopefully from the Tánaiste as well, the intention of Israel is to proceed with those expansions and we now see more than 700,000 illegal settlers in the occupied West Bank and in East Jerusalem. Even with condemnation it does not stop Israel's settlement expansion, it does not stop settler violence and it does not stop the apartheid against the Palestinian people. Tánaiste, is it now time to look at action to hold Israel to account? While the EU is condemns Israel, on the other hand there is a preferential trade agreement with one of the largest gross violators of international law and humanitarian law anywhere in the world. There is a real level of hypocrisy so it is now time for the EU and the Irish Government to take action given that condemnation simply does not work.

I have a couple of other points. In relation to Iran, I want to ask the Tánaiste about the current detention of Bernard Phelan in Iran. There are now some 40 foreign nationals being held in Iran and I think that they are being used by the Iranian authorities as part of a broader agenda. I know Mr. Phelan has joint Irish and French citizenship but what are the Tánaiste's views on that? What actions, if any, are being taken by the Irish Government with regard to his release?

Ireland has a great deal of soft power and most would agree it was instrumental in our securing a seat on the UN Security Council, as well as being seen as an honest broker and a militarily non-aligned country, critically in respect of our role in UN missions which have served Ireland well over many years and built up a huge standing for us on the international stage. On the reported review of Ireland's mission there has been some chatter that we may end our United Nations Disengagement Observer Force, UNDOF, mission to the Golan Heights. What is the nature of that review? What exactly is being looked at? Is there an intention to end any of our UN mission? The UN mission in Lebanon is also due to expire this year. Is it the intention to extend that also? Many people would be concerned that there is a move by some in government to end our neutral status. When there is talk of a review to potentially withdraw members of our Defence Forces from some of these missions and at the same time there is an agreement for Ireland to be involved in EU battle groups where 174 Irish troops will be part of one, that does raise concerns that UN peacekeeping missions are now being sacrificed to feed EU battle groups. I would like the Tánaiste to respond on that and to tell me whether he sees that now there has been a lot of chatter about having a dialogue about neutrality, it is now the time for a proper conversation? I am not afraid of a conversation on neutrality because the vast majority of Irish people are proud of and want to keep our militarily neutral status and go further in terms of being an active neutral country and having an active neutral role. Is now the time for that conversation and will the Tánaiste commit to holding a referendum to enshrine neutrality in our Constitution?

My final point is about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. I met the Armenian ambassador last week to discuss the humanitarian crisis that is unfolding due to what is seen as the illegal closure of the Lachin corridor which directly impacts 120,000 Armenian people. Access to medical aid, food and basics are being denied. I welcome the fact that an EU civilian common security and defence mission will take place in Armenia. What are the Tánaiste's views on the illegal closure of the Lachin corridor, and what is being done to ensure that the illegal closure by Azerbaijan is reversed and access is fully restored?